Betty finished her Heron Window and was very happy with the end result. Everyone in class agreed that she did a great job partially because she never rushed anything about it. If glass that she wanted to use in it wasn't available at the moment she waited until it was back in stock rather than changing up her colors for something that she wasn't completely happy with. She also 'stitched' together the sky by herself and the grain flows perfectly throughout.
Annette showed up with this Rose Bud Window which seemed to come out of nowhere since we never saw her working on it before. She changed the pattern a bit by adding leaves to fill in areas that she felt were a little too open and THAT is a true sign of someone who has taken stained glass to heart. Annette not only changed up the colors on this but also altered the pattern on her own!
Steve got the wire work attached to his Humming Bird Suncatcher and ended up with a stunning piece. Wire work always makes things look so much better but it comes at a cost because it also adds a lot of extra time to the project. That said, the end result is always worth it as proven here.
Susan D finished her Crow suncatcher which will mount onto a piece of tree trunk and become another in a series of her popular tabletop pieces.
Martha completed her Franklin Street Lamp Window and she's becoming known on Facebook as the Streetlight Lady because of how many of these she's made. I guess you can call this stunning window a signature piece of Martha's.
Let made another Ribbon Heart this week and scaled down the pattern so that she had enough Fractures and Streamers glass to fill in the ribbon and finish off the heart shape on the left hand side. Beautiful!
MiMi has officially begun the biggest of undertakings-- a Stained Glass Lamp Shade! And it's not an easy lamp either because it is made up of 1059 pieces which is NOT a beginner project at all. It's going to take patience and time to complete this but MiMi always exhibits those traits. There are three repeats in this 'Louis XV' lamp which means that the pattern repeats three times around the lamp. That means that each piece needs to be cut three times. To keep track of all of those pieces she's using egg cartons to contain them. Each egg hole has been numbered and will hold the three pieces of glass for that particular number. Tricks like this help make this lamp get assembled much more quickly because organization is a key component in making stained glass especially when you have a lot of pieces.
Let came in with most of the glass cut for her Fish Tank Window. She wasn't sure about the color for the Goldfish so she sifted through various sheets of glass that we had in the rack and settled on three different but similar shades. Subtle differences are the best way to shade things and Let's fish will be shaded wonderfully.
After finishing his Humming Bird Steve moved on over to a pair of Cardinals. This one has wire work also which adds time to the project but look at how much he has completed already! This is going to be out the door before you know it.
Melissa's Kaleidoscope wheels were soldered completely this week and the axles where added to the centers of each wheel. That is probably the most taxing part of making a kaleidoscope because if the rivet in the center is off centered or angled in even the slightest bit the wheel will be cockeyed and spin wobbly. I've come up with a method that gets the rivet centered perfectly on the first try and then a little pushing or pulling gets the wheel balanced before tacking the rivet firmly into place.
Cindy is flying through the cutting and grinding of her Cat in a Window Window. She agonized over the color for the mullions in front of the cat and decided to go with a traditional white. This was largely agreed upon due to the white being more visible between the calico cat and the yellow curtains.
Annette also managed to tack her Sacred Heart Window together this week and is officially ready to begin soldering! The roll of solder is on the project, let the fun begin!
Ann started grinding her Nativity Window and got pretty far with it. The bottom piece of glass for her ground may indeed have broken but since it's honestly just dirt that will be a simple fix utilizing some extra pieces. That will makes the window worth more since pricing is determined by materials used and the number of pieces in the finished work!
Lisa finished grinding her Mountains and Stars Suncatcher and if you look REALLY closely you'll see that she decided to go with iridized glass for the 3 stars. Once that was ground she moved on over to her circular Fox Panel and even in this beginning state it looks amazing. Her glass choices and pattern placement for this are impeccable.
Jan got all of the waterglass background cut out for her Sunburst Window but since it's clear glass it's a bit hard to make out in the picture. She then began grinding her Sunburst starting in the lower right corner and it certainly looks like things are coming together nicely.
Linda F has made terrific progress on her Halloween Window and even has a good majority of the window already ground. She said that the Owl in the upper right was a bit of a pain to cut and grind but boy does it look great! This is going to be one spooky looking Halloween Window when it's finished.
With each passing week Susan D's Eagle gains more feathers. this thing will be flying out the door soon! I love the way the one pin just happens to form a perfect eye for this bird. Was that by design or coincidence?
Lara's Stack of Books are all cut out save for the pages of each book. She doesn't want to go with pure white pages and I think I know the perfect glass for the job. And let's not forget that she didn't just cut out once of these Stacks of Books. She's cut enough glass to make two of these (hence the two zip lock bags of pieces in the top of the picture)!
Judy knew that she wanted to make a Christmas themed window the moment she walked in the door. She sorted through all of the patterns that we had in the Holiday Drawer and she then settled on a Grinch Window. At one point before the eyes were cut out I felt that it looked like Kermit the Frog in a Santa suit but once the eyes were cut and dropped into place the Grinch became clearly recognizable. I can't believe how quickly Judy is moving on this!
Lorrie is running out or room in her workshop and decided to finish two of the Address Windows that only needed borders attached to complete them. By the time class was finished Lorrie had two borders attached to two windows and even got a channel on the pair of them as well. Look to see these completed upon her return because she only needs the back sides soldered to finish them off.
Susan R wants to know whose idea it was to make a Peacock. Well the end is VERY near and she's not only going to love this-- she's also going to feel that all of the work she did was well worth it. That's a fact!
Betty also worked on three more Cat Suncatchers which are selling at a rate that's hard for Betty to keep up with. In a way, Betty's becoming one of those cat ladies that you hear about all the time!
Bee has certainly taken off while cutting glass for her Dandelion Window this week. There are really only leaves and the Cross in the sun left to cut out. She's a quick one!
Barbara finished grinding the flowers in her Magnolia Window and decided that the bottom flower needed some yellow in it to match the top one better. She cut a small piece of yellow, ground it to shape and then placed it on top of the flower and traced around it to create the perfect opening for the yellow accent. Look closely and you can see that this picture was taken after she traced around the yellow piece but before she actually cut the opening in the petals.
Mary Grace got all of the background glass for her Mardi Gras Window cut, ground, and wrapped in foil. This was a job that also required careful organizational skills because mixing up any of those similar triangular pieces could have been disastrous. All in all it was a very productive day for her she'll be soldering this next week after the border goes on.
June replaced the mis-colored pieces in her Goat Window and now the goat has a much fuller face and even better, has no hole in the middle of his body! Color errors like these are easy to make when you are dealing with a pattern that is black and white. June also tried many different colors of glass for the border but in the end this off brown ended up being the best choice by far
Sheri resumed work on her Koi Window and has selected most, if not all of the colors that she'll use to make this. She's begun to trace pattern pieces onto glass so I'm thinking that we will see some glass cut for this when she comes back in.
In signing off I just want to say, "Alcohol." Why? Because no great story ever began with someone eating a salad.
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks